Remaining Homeless

In 2008, only 34 out of 330 disadvantaged orphans and abandoned children were provided government-funded housing. Procecutor General's Office of Karelia has conducted control inspection on the execution quality of housing program for orphans and disadvantaged children. The previous inspection conducted in 2008 revealed numerous infringements of law.

Following the instruction from Prosecutor General's Office, republic's executive bodies have taken measures to remedy the failures discovered in 2008. However, the repeat control inspection has proved that housing law applied to orphans, disadvantaged children and children of similar status continues to be poorly executed. In 2008 only 34 people out of 330 were provided housing. The plans to build a 60-apartment building for people from this social group are yet to be executed, despite the 20 mln. rubles that have been allocated for this task in 2009 by Karelia's budget. Funds provided to the district authorities remain without expenditure control. In 2008 municipal bodies had over 12 mln. rubles of unspent budget money available.

In 2006-2008 Karelia's courts issued 83 rulings by which housing was to be provided to the orphaned and children abandoned by their parents. Of these, 63 provisions remain unexecuted as of January 1, 2009 (51 of them belong to Petrozavodsk). Over 200 apartments in possession of children require renovations (80 of these are in Prionezhsky district), 27 have been destroyed by fire, 45 apartments are uninhabitable. At the same time only 1 apartment has been officially recognized as uninhabitable. Renovations haven't been done for years, and local authorities fail to do this work effectively.

These infringements of law became possible due to Republic's Executives failure to perform their duties in the area of human rights protection of those categories who need special protection from the government. Ministry of Education of Karelian Republic has not established any controlling mechanism to monitor quality and fulfillment of housing programs for the orphaned and abandoned children.

In connection with the abovementioned, Prosecutor General's Office of Republic of Karelia ruled out obligatory instruction to rectify breaches of law and initiate disciplinary actions against those responsible.

SIROTINKA.RU commentary:

The housing problem is very old and multileveled. The first thing that comes into mind is that the orphans are deprived not only of their parents but also their right to housing, which means being homeless for the rest of their lives. It is known that parents whose parental rights have been terminated continue drinking even more alcohol. As a result, they gradually lose not only their human image but housing as well, and their children lose it, too. Russian legislation has no system for protection of children's housing rights. After years spent in an orphanage, a child can lose his parents' apartment, which by that time becomes uninhabitable. I know very few cases when a child received housing upon graduation from the orphanage. This is considered something unreal, like a fairy tale. The authorities always find an excuse to not build government-funded housing, "We don't sponsor non-commercial real estate", they say. Chances to win a case defending your right for housing are close to zero. And this can lead to homelessness, impossibility to start a family and finally, the path of crime and living in a cell. I'm in my forties right now and still without my own apartment, which must be guaranteed by the government after 16 years I spent in an orphanage. It's a good thing my wife has an apartment in Moscow, but not every orphan has a wife in Moscow.